Session Forty-Two, The Plot Within a Plot
Having successfully faked Fern's death, the party reconvened (via Malfeas) to decide what to do next. They elected to follow through on certain promises made to certain Deathlords, and headed off to destroy some of the Mask of Winters' defensive towers. Fern summoned the Princes of the Fallen Tower to shred the largely-mundane buildings; the party set them on fire and dropped them out of the Coatl onto the towers in hopes of framing Laron for the destruction. Having successfully wreaked the promised destruction, the party-minus-Fern returned in their Abyssal disguises to the Walker in Darkness' palace. They proposed a new attack to the Walker: coordinated strikes along the length of the Nexus-Thorns road, something sufficiently destructive to prove their Abyssal bona fides but also very foilable. Unfortunately for their attempts to foil it, the Guild didn't have the resources to do so (they drastically underestimated the sheer length of the road), the Mask of Winters didn't care enough to bother, and the Walker in Darkness wouldn't let them in on his plans' details. He would say only that he wanted them to attack a particular caravan and steal a particular package -- something head-sized and unmistakable. Suddenly ally-less, the party now had to figure out how to stop a series of attacks which, if successful, would wreck that trade route for generations to come. The Stone of Serendipity, when queried, turned into a photo of the party disguised as Abyssals and wreaking havoc on the particular caravan they'd promised to attack. Confused but out of options, they waited til the next morning to do as it suggested. They met the promised caravan on the road. Its defiant mortal drivers greeted Largo, Kai, Fern, and Amber with a hostile "Death and ruin, Anathema". Takara snuck in the back of the caravan to snatch the package. It turned out to be something like a crystal-encased orrery made of all the Celestial magical metals. Just as he described it to the rest of the party, the spinning rings began speeding up. Fern immediately recognized the soulbreaker orb in his hands for what it was: abandoning disguise, she burst through the caravan's walls to try and disarm it. Largo, however, had a better idea: he flew it up to the Coatl, opened one of its doors into the Underworld, and chucked the bomb through. Relieved, the party explained matters to the caravaneers and sent them on their way with repaired equipment and a very large jade bonus. Once they were sure the orb would have detonated, they peeked through to the Underworld to check on it -- and found it undetonated, intact, just lying on the ground below. Once sure it was inert, they brought it back to the Coatl. With that unexpected bonus, they could almost forget that the Walker had apparently seen through their disguises... Character Thoughts and Reactions Alexa: First off, the soulbreaker orb bit was fantastic. Heehee. Second, though... Much as I enjoyed dropping twelve flaming wrecking balls on unsuspecting towers, most of this session positively crawled. We need to improve the pacing a lot. Playing with Steve as ST has taught me that we don't need to deliberate nearly that much -- do a bit of arguing, then go and do, and it'll work out. This is OOC discussion fodder. Followed by Session Forty-Two-Point-Five, The Balancing Analysis Category:Exalted: The Green Knights